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Fairness and Accuracy in Middle East Reporting

By Fred Samia

"Truth is the first casualty of war."

My initiation, more than thirty-five years ago, into what Aeschylus' dictum meant in reality was striking. In 1973, just a few years after fighting as a Marine in the DMZ in Vietnam, I was again in the middle of unimaginable destruction and suffering, this time as a free-lance photojournalist documenting the bombing of civilian Palestinian refugee camps in southern Lebanon for UNRWA (United Nations Relief Works Agency for Refugees). The cinder block and tin roof huts still smoldered as I photographed people tearing at the remains trying to reach loved ones trapped in the rubble. When returning Phantom jets roared overhead I jumped into a bomb crater large enough to accommodate a good-sized house. UNRWA, who administered these camps, sent the photographs I took to the wire news services, but their captions failed to mention Israel or the Israeli Air Force, the deliverer of the deadly cargo. When I asked the editor, a well-meaning and principled British woman about the omission, she indicated it was in UNWRA's best interest not to name them.

And in 2000 I would again hear and read the twisted logic of Israeli "self-defense," as I followed the swath of devastation cut by the invading Israeli military through Lebanese cities, towns and villages before it was forced out by Hezbollah fighters, who were not Iranian, but poor Lebanese Shiite patriots.

Once again we are being asked, this time by Messrs Halevi and Oren, (Los Angeles Times Op-Ed, January 4, 2009) to disbelieve what we see with our own eyes, perhaps know in our own hearts, and instead accept an "expert" version of historical and current events. US made and US taxpayer-gifted Israeli F-16 jets are bombing the most densely populated area in the world: 1.5 million Palestinians, the vast majority civilians with a median age of 14, living in an area only slightly more than double the size of Washington, DC. Israeli tank shells are killing innocent victims—not supporters of an Iranian fifth column bent on the destruction of the State of Israel.

Once more the sad coda of lies is repeated that Israel takes extraordinary care not to harm civilians while heartless Hamas (and any Palestinian faction resisting armed occupation) uses its own citizens as human shields. The song stops just short of reiterating the "they-don't-have-the-same-respect-for-life-that-we-do" refrain. Israel, like other occupying powers, knows that the base of any resistance movement is the people and to destroy that base means to attack the people. And if they can't all be killed then instill in them as much suffering and fear as possible. This is the reality of the "spirit...of one of the most impressive airstrikes since the 1967 Six-Day War."

If Israel has to kill thousands more Palestinians, Lebanese and any others they deem necessary, it is now to be justified as part of its battle against the great Satan Iran. Once again, forty-plus years of illegal occupation, oppression, national homelessness and misery are conveniently forgotten and all ills rested upon the shoulders of Hamas and the Palestinian people. Halevi and Oren, like other servants of the Israeli state, exaggerate Iran's power and influence, using them as a mask to hide Israel's own expansionist policies. The Israeli military juggernaut will have little trouble with those few thousand lightly armed fighters opposing their invasion, but the "problem" of Gaza and the Palestinians in general will not dissipate with the cordite smoke.

Facts once more are reinterpreted so that democratically elected Hamas becomes "a terrorist regime that seized power" and broke a truce that Israel had never really honored, while others, like the US- Israeli blockade and sanctions—violations of international law—that so increased the hardship and desperation for Gazans are ignored. Also conveniently ignored is the fact that Hamas was cynically created by Israel as a counter force to Arafat's Fatah, and that Sharon's refusal to negotiate in good faith with moderate Abbas contributed to Hamas' electoral victory.

What is the reality of those restrictions and sanctions? The American Friends Service Committee (Quakers) in March of 2008 reported, among others, the following statistics:

• 80% of families in Gaza on food aid - approximately 1.1 million people.
• 70% of households in Gaza earned less than $1.20 per person per day.
• 18.5% of patients seeking emergency treatment in hospitals outside refused permits to leave.
• 40-50 million liters of raw sewage discharged into the sea daily for lack of fuel to run treatment plants.
• Hospitals and other public utilities experience power cuts lasting 8-12 hours a day.

Now that Israel has launched a full-scale military invasion-not an "incursion," the situation is that much more desperate and harrowing. There are reports of overwhelmed and under-supplied Palestinian doctors performing surgery without anesthesia in hospital corridors.

For there to be a future for Israel-Palestine there must be fair, accurate and unbiased reporting of the facts. And for there to be genuine peace between Palestinians and Israelis, basic civil and human rights, including independence and statehood, must be guaranteed for all.

Fred Samia is a free-lance journalist who has lived in and reported on the Middle East and Europe.